Augustus II or Frederick-Augustus I was Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. He was born in 1670 at Dresden and died in 1733. He was the second son of John George III, elector of Saxony. He succeeded his brother in the electorate in 1694, and the Polish throne having become vacant, in 1696, by the death of John Sobieski, Augustus presented himself as a candidate for it and was successful. He joined with Peter the Great in the war against Charles XII of Sweden, invaded Livonia, but was defeated by Charles near Riga, and at Clissow, between Warsaw and Cracow. In 1704 he was deposed, and two years later formally resigned the crown to Stanislaus I, now devoting himself to his Saxon dominions. In 1709, after the defeat of Charles at Pultowa, the Poles recalled Augustus, who united himself anew with Peter. The two monarchs, in alliance with Denmark, sent troops into Pomerania, but the Swedish general Steinbock defeated the allies at Gadebusch, on December the 20th, 1712. The death of Charles XII put an end to the war, and Augustus concluded a peace with Sweden. A confederation was now formed in Poland against the Saxon troops, but through the mediation of Peter an arrangement was concluded by which the Saxon troops were removed from the kingdom. Augustus now gave himself wholly up to voluptuousness and a life of pleasure. His court was one of the most splendid and polished in Europe. The Poles yielded but too readily to the example of their king, and the last years of his reign were characterized by boundless luxury and corruption of manners. His wife left him one son. The Countess of Konigsmark bore him the celebrated commander Marshal Saxe (Maurice of Saxony). Research Augustus II
Augustus III or Frederick-Augustus II was Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. He was born in 1696 at Dresden and died in 1763. He was the son of Augustus II and succeeded his father as elector in 1733, and was chosen King of Poland through the influence of Austria and Russia. He closely followed the example of his father, distinguishing himself by the splendour of his feasts and the extravagance of his court. He preferred Dresden to Warsaw, and through his long absence from Poland the government sank into entire inactivity. During the first Silesian war he formed a secret alliance with Austria. The consequence was that during the second Silesian war Frederick the Great of Prussia pushed on into Saxony, and occupied the capital, from which Augustus fled. By the peace of Dresden, on December the 25th 1745, he was reinstated in the possession of Saxony. In 1756 he was involved anew in a war against Prussia. When Frederick declined his proposal of neutrality he left Dresden, and entered the camp at Pirna, where 17,000 Saxon troops were assembled. Frederick surrounded the Saxons, who were obliged to surrender, and Augustus fled to Poland. On the threat of invasion by Russia he returned to Dresden, where he died in 1763. His son, Frederick Christian, succeeded him as Elector of Saxony, and Stanislaus Poniatowski as King of Poland. Research Augustus III
Autumn is the season between summer and winter, in the northern hemisphere traditionally regarded as embracing August, September, and October, or three months about that time. The beginning of the astronomical autumn is September the 22nd, the autumnal equinox; and the end is December the 21st, the shortest day. The autumn of the southern hemisphere takes place at the time of the northern spring. Research Autumn
The Body of Liberties was a code of 100 fundamental laws established by the General Court of Massachusetts in December 1641. Previously there had been no written law in the colony, and justice was administered wholly upon principles of equity. The Body of Liberties was drafted by Nathaniel Ward, pastor of the church at Ipswich. It laid down the fundamental principles of the sacredness of life, liberty, property and reputation and prescribed general rules for judicial proceedings. Research Body of Liberties
The Bonus Bill was an American bill submitted by Calhoun on the 23rd of December 1816, appropriating $1.5 million 'for constructing roads and canals and improving the navigation of watercourses.' The bill was passed, being strongly supported by New York and the South. It was supposed the money would immediately be applied to the construction of a canal between Albany and the lakes. President James Mason vetoed the bill during the last days of his administration, insisting that internal improvement measures needed a constitutional amendment. Accordingly, New York State undertook the construction of the Erie Canal. Research Bonus Bill
The Boston Tea Party was an incident that occurred at the height of the agitation antecedent to the American revolution. On December 16th, 1773 a group of Bostonians, disguised as Indians, boarded several ships laden with taxed tea and threw 350 chests of it into the harbour. In retaliation the home government declared the port closed. Research Boston Tea Party
Formerly in England a boy-bishop was a boy chosen by cathedral choirs or pupils in grammar-schools as a mock-bishop to take leading parts in certain mummeries or festivities in the month of December annually. Research Boy-Bishop
The Buckshot War was an event which occurred in 1838 in Philadelphia where control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives depended upon the choice of a United States Senator. In the election, the Democratic party candidates for the Legislature were elected by small majorities; but their Congressional candidate was defeated. Thereupon the Democratic judges cast out 5000 Whig votes, claiming fraud. The Whig judges then issued certificates of election to both their Congressional and Legislative candidates, and these returns were accepted by the Whig Secretary of State. At the opening of the Legislature at Harrisburg on December the 4th 1838, armed partisans were present. The Whig Senate adjourned because of the mob, and in the House tow warring bodies assembled. The Whig Governor called on the militia, and tried, without effect, to obtain Federal aid. The Democratic House was finally recognised on December the 25th. Research Buckshot War
A calendar (named from the Latin calendarium, from calendce, the first day of the month), is a record or marking out of time as systematically divided into years, months, weeks, and days.
The periodical occurrence of certain natural phenomena gave rise to the first division of time, the division into weeks being the only purely arbitrary partition. The year of the ancient Egyptians was based on the changes of the seasons alone, without reference to the lunar month, and contained 365 days divided into twelve months of thirty days each, with five supplementary days at the end of the year.
The Jewish year consisted of lunar months of which they reckoned twelve in the year, intercalating a thirteenth when necessary to maintain the correspondence of the particular months with the regular recurrence of the seasons.
The Greeks in the earliest period also reckoned by lunar and intercalary months, but after one or two changes adopted the plan of Meton and Euctemon, who took account of the fact that in a period of nineteen years, the new moons return upon the same days of the year as before. This period of nineteen years was found, however, to be about six hours too long, and subsequent calculators still failed to make the beginning of the seasons return on the same fixed day of the year. Each month was divided into three decads.
The Romans at first divided the year into ten months, but they early adopted the Greek method of lunar and intercalary months, making the lunar year consist of 354, and afterwards of 355 days, leaving ten or eleven days and a fraction to be supplied by the intercalary division. This arrangement continued until the time of Julius Caesar. The first day of the month was called the calends. In March, May, July, and October the 15th, in other months the 13th, was called the ides. The ninth day before the ides (reckoning inclusive) was called the nones, being therefore either the 7th or the 5th of the month. From the inaccuracy of the Roman method of reckoning the calendar came to represent the vernalequinox nearly two months after the event, and at the request of Julius Caesar, the Greek astronomer Sosigenes with the assistance of Marcus Fabius, contrived the so-called Julian calendar. The chief improvement consisted in restoring the equinox to its proper place by inserting two months between November and December, so that the year 707 (46 BC), called the year of confusion, contained fourteen months.
In the number of days the Greek computation was adopted, which made it 365.25. To dispose of the quarter of a day it was determined to intercalate a day every fourth year between the 23rd and 24th of February. This calendar continued in use among the Romans until the fall of the empire, and throughout Christendom until 1582.
By this time, owing to the cumulative error of eleven minutes, the vernalequinox really took place ten days earlier than its date in the calendar, and accordingly PopeGregory XIII issued a brief abolishing the Julian calendar in all Catholic countries, and introducing in its stead the one now in use, the Gregorian or reformed calendar. In this way began the new style, as opposed to the other or old style. Ten days were to be dropped; every hundredth year, which by the old style was to have been a leap year, was now to be a common year, the fourth excepted; and the length of the solar year was taken to be 365 days, five hours, forty-nine minutes, and twelve seconds, the difference between which and subsequent observations is immaterial. The new calendar was adopted in Spain, Portugal, and France in 1582; in Catholic Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands in 1583; in Poland in 1586; in Hungary in 1587; in ProtestantGermany, Holland, and Denmark in 1700; in Switzerland in 1701; in England in 1752; and in Sweden, 1753.
In the English calendar of 1752, also, the 1st of January was now adopted as the beginning of the legal year, and it was customary for some time to give two dates for the period intervening between 1st January and 25th March, that of the old and that of the new year, as January 1752/3. Russia alone retained the old style, which by 1906 differed twelve days from the new.
In France, during the revolution, a new calendar was introduced by a decree of the rational Convention, on November the 24th, 1793. The time from which the new reckoning was to commence was the autumnal equinox of 1792, which fell upon the 22nd of September, when the first decree of the new republic had been promulgated. The year was made to consist of twelve months of three decades each, and, to complete the full number, five fete days, or sansculotides (in leap years six) were added to the end of the year. The seasons and months were as follows: Autumn; 22nd September to 22nd December Vendimiaire, vintage month; Brumaire, foggy month; Frimaire, sleet month. Winter; 22nd December to 22nd March: Nivose, snowy month; Plumose, rainy month; Ventose, windy month. Spring; 22nd March to 22nd June: Germinal, budmonth; Floreal, flowermonth; Prairial, meadowmonth. Summer; 22nd June to 22nd Sept.: Messidor, harvest month; Thermidor, hot month; Fructidor, fruit month. The common Christian or Gregorian calendar was re-established in France on the 1st of January, 1806, by Napoleon. Research Calendar
The Challenger Expedition was a scientific and exploring expedition carried out at the expense of the British Government by means of the ship Challenger, a frigate-built vessel of about 2000 tons, fully equipped with all the most improved scientific appliances for ascertaining the depth, temperature, currents, etc, of the ocean, and the character of the ocean bottom, and for amassing natural history specimens. The ship set sail on December the 7th, 1872, under the command of Captain (afterwards Sir) George Nares, Professor (afterwards Sir) Wyville Thomson being at the head of the scientific staff attached to the ship. In the course of the expedition the ship called at Madeira, Teneriffe, the Bermudas, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Cape Verde Islands, Cape of Good Hope, Kerguelen Islands, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, Japan, Valparaiso, etc, returning home by way of the Strait of Magellan, and arriving on May the 24th, 1876. During the three and a half years of the cruise the ship traversed about 70,000 nautical miles, and a vast amount of highly useful information was accumulated, the results being published at government expense in a great many volumes. Several popular works on the expedition were also published. Research Challenger Expedition
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Augustus II
